The ability to sequence DNA rapidly is a major goal of modern medicine. One well-publicized effort includes the project to sequence the human genome. However, since each human chromosome contains some 10.sup.9 base pairs, current technology based on wet- chemistry sequencing methods (See: F. Sanger. "Determination of Nucleotide Sequences in DNA. Science 214. 1205-1210, 1980; and W. Gilbert, "DNA Sequencing and Gene Structure", Science, 214, 1305-1312, 1981) is just not useful for a project of that magnitude. Indeed, to date, there is no known method of simply determining and visualizing the sequence of a given fragment in a microscope. The present invention provides such a method for imaging and sequencing DNA/RNA molecules with a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) or an atomic force microscope (AFM) while avoiding the distortions caused by prior methodologies.